ENGLISH OPINION reputation for wit to be obtained by any - such sacrifice himself, and disdains to sanction ar applaud it as the hearer of others. Though the late sanguinary revolution in France overturned law, order, govern- ment, and religion; and hadgiven amore emphatical character to crime ofevery de- scription; yet ifwe take a cursory viewof the period immediately preceding it, we shall see that this tremendous convulsion rather aggravated than introduced many ofits moral corruptions. Tobe convinced of this, we need not travel so far back as that period which the natives consider as the acme of human glory, - the age of Louis Quatorze, of Richelieu, . and the Academy, the immortal Forty, as this academy had the modesty to call itself'. More sober thinkers are, however, of opinion, that what characterised that splendid reign, was unbounded extrava- gance, elegant profligacy, and tolerated debauchery. Surely these, which were its notorious distinctions, are practices
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